1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to digital systems having multiple time domains and parallel hardware. More particularly, the present invention relates to an apparatus and method for distributing high bandwidth data among multiple units operating in parallel at a reduced clock rate.
2. Description of Related Art
A given system's computing power can be increased in numerous ways. Components can be made faster. Additional computing resources can be added. Both approaches offer respective advantages. Faster components allow higher clock rates to be used, but are often disproportionately expensive considering the gain in performance. Additional resources offer parallel execution of tasks that can be broken up into independent subtasks, but typically require additional overhead for allocating and monitoring resources for subtask execution.
Fortunately, the choices are not mutually exclusive. A clever system designer may choose to use both techniques to increase system performance. That is, some components may be made faster, while others are replicated for increased parallel processing performance. However, such use of both techniques creates a clock-domain split in the system across which data must travel. A method and apparatus for efficiently accomplishing such transfers would prove very beneficial in such systems.